


Stubbornness is a vital asset

by Space_Cadet_Blues



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 11:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27469990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Space_Cadet_Blues/pseuds/Space_Cadet_Blues
Summary: Zagreus lays dying for the umpteenth time.Thanatos attempts to comfort him.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 200





	Stubbornness is a vital asset

_Stubbornness_. Zagreus is pretty sure he’s genetically predisposed to thrive on it. So strong is his resolve that his body is exercising its right to cling to life when it is broken beyond repair.

Zagreus watches the haze of roiling light green clouds pass far above him where he lays, bright against the backdrop of endless void above. Everything is bright this far up. But the light is like embers enclosed in cupped hands. Artificial, pressed in by darkness.

He flexes his bloody and trembling fingers in the soft grass beneath him. It’s getting difficult to breathe now.

The wound is substantial. He’d had one too many pointy things being thrust his way to have been able to keep track of them all. Inevitably one of those pointy things had pierced him just below the solar plexus and ruptured something vital. Probably _several_ somethings if the lack of pain but inability to get up or move much is anything to go by. His body is weak and getting weaker still. The flames at his feet crackle and dim. He’s starting to feel cold.

So, once again, he lays broken and bleeding in the cool grass and waits for death. Nothing much else to do.

He’ll harness that _stubbornness_ and try again, and again, and _again_ , as many times as it takes until he makes it up top.

The thought, for once, tires him to the bones. It seems to rest within his dying body.

He gives a rattling cough and tastes the metal bite of blood.

Not long now.

There’s a sudden flash of light that encapsulates the space around him and the deep decisive toll of a bell sounds out, echoing across the clearing. Zagreus finds himself half elated and half dreading the coming encounter. Meeting his old friend up here would usually bring him joy. But there’s not much of that to be had today. He’d only _just_ made it to Elysium this time and his father’s champions had been the ones to best him, using sheer numbers against him. He hadn’t even reached the domain of Asterius this time.

_Next time for sure._

“I sensed you were nearby,” Thanatos says, somewhere off to his right out of his field of vision. Voice soft, betraying no emotion. “What a sorry sight.”

That stings a little more than it should.

“Don’t pity me Than, I’ll be good as new and raring to go again shortly.”

“Mm”

Zagreus closes his eyes and feels his body being lifted and repositioned by gentle but firm hands. When he opens them again he finds Thanatos has propped him to sit against the base of a stone pillar facing out over a steep drop, overlooking the lower parts of Elysium. Rolling green hills among swirling mists dotted with the white peaks of houses that belong to the dead. Several jade butterflies flutter over the crest of the cliff. It _is_ beautiful. He can’t deny that. But in his heart he knows it likely pales in comparison to whatever sights await him on the surface. Sights Thanatos, and Achilles and many others have described to him many a time. It’s something he has to see for himself. The crash of waves on beaches under a gibbous moon. The cry of birds soaring against blue open skies. He wants to feel rain on his skin. He wants to breathe the air, _fresh_ air.

And more than all of that. He wants to find his mother. _Needs_ to find her.

Groaning Zagreus rolls his head against the stone, breathing heavier now.

He wants to meet Thanatos’s gaze which is boring into him but finds he can’t. Instead he stares out at the scenery.

Thanatos does something unexpected then. He kneels next to Zagreus and takes his face in his hands; they’re unexpectedly warm. Zagreus does meet his eyes then but is only able to for a moment before Thanatos leans in and presses a lingering kiss to his forehead.

“The kiss of death,” Zagreus muses while his heart soars.

Thanatos ignores him in favour of whispering against his skin. “Dont give up.”

He won’t, of course he won’t, even if he did he’d find the courage to try again eventually. But Thanatos can tell when he needs a verbal pick me up. Today’s attempt has not been a good one.

Than always seems to know what he needs.

He’s about to speak his thanks when his final breath leaves him. He still has a smile on his face when he’s sucked down into the murky depths of death, down into the river, to be reborn, again, and again, and again.

As many times as it takes to get what he desires. 


End file.
